Judicial Watch wants ethics probe widened to Democrats

The group is requesting an investigation into Reps. Adam Schiff and Jackie Speier. (AP)

The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee may have violated standards by disclosing classified information.

In the letter that requests the investigation of ranking committee member Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Jackie Speier, both of California, Judicial Watch cites other complaints to the OCE which were successful in garnering an investigation of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Nunes stepped aside from leading the committee's Russia investigation after the OCE began their investigation.

"If the standard for filing a complaint or opening an ethics investigation is that a member has commented publicly on matters that touch on classified information, but the member does not reveal the source of his or her information, then the complaints against Chairman Nunes are incomplete insofar as they target only Nunes," Judicial Watch wrote. "At least two other members of the House Intelligence Committee have made comments about classified material that raise more directly the very same concerns raised against Chairman Nunes because they appear to confirm classified information contained in leaked intelligence community intercepts."

The letter then points to remarks made by Rep. Schiff in March, and remarks made by Rep. Speier in April, which Judicial Watch is arguing could be equivalent to the standard being applied to Nunes. Judicial Watch says both made remarks that indirectly confirmed the leaked transcript between Mike Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The transcript of the Flynn-Kislyak phone call was put in the public domain in early February when the Washington Post first reported on the call and its contents. However, elected officials often do not confirm publicly that leaked information is accurate, even though it is widely accepted to be so.

President Trump recently told Fox News "the CIA was hacked," which was an apparent reference to new documents published by WikiLeaks at the time. However, it was unusual for a president to confirm the accuracy of leaked intelligence material.